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Decfidi 




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THE 



Illinois €miml %kiI-%u^ €m^ui 



OFFER FOR SALE 



OVER 2,400,000 ACRES 



SELECTED 



PRAIRIE, FARM AND VOOD LANDS, 



IN TRACTS OF ANY SIZE, TO SUIT PUECHA8EKS, 



ON 



LONG CREDITS, AND AT LOW RATES OF INTEREST, 



SITUATED 



ON EACH SIDE OF THEIR EAIL-EOAD, EXTENDING ALL THE WAT FROM THE 
EXTREME NORTH TO THE SOUTH OF THE 



STATE OF ILLINOIS. 




NftD-Dorlx : 

JOHN W. A MERMAN, PRINTER, 

No. 60 WiLLIAM-STEEET. 



1855. 



NoTK. — It lijis been found impossible to answer the large number of letters that 
are daily received in reference to these Lauds. To such this Pamphlet will be sent 
in reply to the questions asked. 






THE LANDS 



ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAIL-ROAD COMPANY. 



THE COMPANY'S TITLE TO THE LANDS. 

The Congress of the United States, on the 20th clay 
of September, 1850, passed an act, granting to the 
State of Illinois two millions five hundred and ninety -five 
thousand acres of the Public Lands, to aid in the con- 
struction of a long line of Rail-Road throughout the 
State. 

On the 10th of February, 1851, the Legislature of 
the State of Illinois passed an act to incorporate " The 
Illinois Central Rail-Road Company," granting to them 
the large body of lands which had been given by the 
General Government to encourage this enterprise, 
which was so important to open the rich prairies for 
settlement. 



THE RAIL-ROAD ROUTE. 



The Road commences at Dunleith, a town on the 
Mississippi, in the extreme north of the State, oppo- 



site the city of Dubuque, in Iowa. It passes south 16 
miles through Galena, the great lead region of the 
West. It then runs easterly 50 miles ; after which it 
takes a southerly course, in almost a straight line, to 
Cairo, the extreme southern point of the State. Cairo 
is situated at the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi, 
and is the point at which produce and merchandise 
are exchanged with the numerous steamboats floating 
on these great rivers. A branch of the Road leaves 
the main line 118 miles above Cairo, diverging to the 
northeast, and terminating at Chicago, on Lake Michi- 
gan, the greatest gram-sMpping port in the world. 

A daily freight and passenger train is now running 
between Cairo and Galena, and also between Chicago 
and Galena, and Chicago and Cairo. The trains will 
run through to Dunleith on the 1st of May. The Ohio 
and Mississippi Uail-Road connects with the Illinois 
Central at Sandoval, running to St. Louis. 

By completing nearly 600 miles of Rail-Road, the 
company have formed connections with various Rail- 
Roads leading to different parts of this country. 
Thus every part of this State, and of the United States, 
is quickly reached, both by passengers and freight. 

At every ten miles throughout its entire length, 
commodious and well-finished station and freight 
houses have been built. Around almost every one of 
these, villages are rapidly springing up ; many of 
them already contain a population of from 500 to 
1,500 people, where eighteen months ago there was not 
a single house. 

The Road is built in the most superior manner. It 
is stocked with the very best locomotive engines, pas- 
senger and freight cars, that could be procured. The 



charges for transporting passengers and freight are 
moderate. 



LOCATION OF THE LANDS. 



The lands are situated on each side of the Road 
between Dunleith and Cairo, on the main line, and 
between Chicago and Centralia, by the Chicago Branch. 
As it traverses north and south from end to end of the 
State, it passes through a great variety of climates. 
Lands may be thus selected in various latitudes, to suit 
the disposition of the purchaser. The Road passes 
immediately over some of the lands ; others vary in 
distance from it from one to jfifteen miles. 



PRICE AND TERMS OF PAYMENT. 

The price will vary from $5 to $25 per acre, accord- 
ing to location, quality, distance from stations, villages, 
&c. Contracts for deeds may be made during the year 
1855, stipulating the purchase money to be made in 
five payments, with the succeeding years' interest 
added in advance. The first payment to be made in 
two years from the date of the contract, and the others 
annually thereafter. 

Interest ivill he charged at only tiuoper cent, jper annum. 
As a security for the performance of the contract, the 
first two years' interest must be paid in advance. 

For instance, suppose you buy on the 1st of April, 
1855, eighty acres of selected prairie farm land, at 



6 

$10 per acre, on the foregoing terms. Your account, 
until a deed is given, would stand thus : 

April 1, 1855. Received contract for a Deed for 80 Acres of 
Land, at $10 per acre, ($800,) and paid two 
years' Interest, at two per cent, per annum, in 

advance, . $32 00 

" " 1857. Paid first instalment of principal, 

being one-fifth of $800, . . . $160 00 

One year's Interest in advance on 
balance due, ($640,) at two per cent. 

per annum, 12 80—172 80 

" " 1858. Paid second instalment, being one- 
fifth as above, 160 00 

One year's Interest in advance on 
balance due, ($480,) as above, . . $9 60—109 60 
*' " 1859. Paid third instaloient, being one- 
fifth as above, 160 00 

One year's Interest in advance on 
balance due, ($320,) as above, . . .0 40—166 40 
" " 1860. Paid fourth instalment, being one- 

fiflh as above, 160 00 

One year's Interest in advance on 
balance due, ($160,) as above, . . . 3 20—163 20 
" " 1861. Paid fifth instalment, being one- 
fifth as above, and received Deed, . . . 160 00 



Making the full payment, principal and interest, . . $864 00 

It must be understood that at least ten per cent, of 
the lands purchased shall be fenced and cultivated each 
year for five years, so as to have one-half of the pur- 
chase under improvement by the time the last payment 
becomes due. 

It will be borne in mind that, until the payments 
are made and the deed of conveyance granted, these 
lands are not subject to taxation, by' the 2 2d Section of 
the Act of the Legislature, approved Feb. 10, 1851. 



7 

FUEL. 

Wood is delivered at the stations along the line of the 
Eoad at $3 and $4 per cord. In the southern part of 
the State it is afforded in some places as low as $2 per 
cord. Bituminous Coal, of good quality, is found at 
several points of the Road. It is sold at from $1 50 
to $3 per ton. 

THE VALUE OF THE LAND FOR FARMING PURPOSES. 

Illinois is known throughout the United States as 
the Garden State of the Union. It is justly entitled 
to the name, from the extraordinary fertility of its 
soil Its vast tracts of rich, rolling land, interspersed 
here and there with clumps of woodland, were called 
by the first French settlers "Prairies," which, transla- 
ted, means natural meadows. Almost the whole State 
is a natural meadow. Trees are not required to be 
cut down, stumps grubbed, or stones picked off, as is 
too often the case in bringing new lands into cultiva- 
tion in the Eastern, and Middle States. There is 
nothing to obstruct the plough. The soil is readily 
turned over at the rate of two acres to two and a 
half per day, by a heavy team of horses, or two yoke 
of oxen. It can be contracted to be turned over for 
$2 to $2 50 per acre. It is a dark, rich soil, from 
one to five feet in depth. After the first year's tillage 
the gi'ound is in a high state of cultivation. It ivill 
then produce, luith less labor, as large a crop as any farm 
in the Eastern or Middle States, valued at $100 to $150 
2)er acre. 

It costs 1 cent per mile to transport ten bushels of 
wheat on the Illinois Central Rail-Road, from any part 



8 

of the State. It is shipped from Chicago to New-York 
at from 20 to 25 cents per bushel. The cost of trans- 
porting wheat direct from the Company's lands, one 
hundred miles from Chicago to New- York, is thus 
found to be from 30 to 35 cents per bushel. Corn 
costs about 27 cents per bushel to put into the New- 
York market from lands along the Rail-Road one hun- 
dred miles back of Chicago. The Company have large 
bodies of lands less than one hundred miles from Chi- 
cago. 

Owing to the extraordinary fertility of their lands, 
with the same exjpenditure of labor as is bestowed on 
farms in the Eastern or Middle States, a great deal more 
grain may be produced than to pay the additional expense 
of transportation of the crop to the New- Yorh^ Philadel- 
phia, Boston, or any other Eastern maj'ket. The crop 
may be sold at Chicago, at Eastern prices, less the 
freio-ht to the Eastern market, and a small commission 
for attending to the business. Or, still better, the 
farmer can sell his crop delivered at the nearest Rail- 
Road station to his farm, at a trifling deduction from 
the Chicago prices. 

Attention is requested to the letter of the Rev. John 
Barger, accompanying this, who sold his crop of wheat 
at $1 per bushel, delivered at the Illinois Central Rail- 
Road Company's depot, at Clinton,- one hundred and 
fifty-three miles from Chicago. 

The Company have hundreds of thousands of acres of 
land, equally as good as that of Mr. Barger, lying 
immediately alongside of their Rail-Road track, from 
$5 to $25 per acre, in proportion to its distance from 
it. They have no lands further out than fifteen miles 
from the Road. 



COST OF MOVING TO CHICAGO. 

FARES FROM N"EW-YORK TO CHICAGO, BY THE DIFFERENT ROUTES, 

First Class. Emigrant. 

Via New- York and Erie, Buffalo and Erie, Cleveland 
and Erie, Cleveland and Toledo, and Miclugaa 
Southern Rail-Roads, (distance 900 miles,) . . $22 00 $11 00 

Via New- York and Erie, to Niagara Falls, Great 
Western, (Canada,) and Michigan Central Rail- 
Roads, (distance 960 miles,) . . . . 22 00 11 00 

Via New- York and Erie, to Buffalo, Buffalo and 
Brantford, (Canada,) Great Western, (Canada,) 
and Michigan Central Roads, (distance 950 miles,) 22 00 11 00 

Via Hudson River, New- York Central, Buffalo and 
Erie, Cleveland and Toledo, and Michigan Southern 
Roads, (distance 968 miles,) . . . . 22 00 11 00 

Via Hudson River, New- York Central, Great West- 
ern, (Canada,) and Michigan Central Roads, (dis- 
tance 961 miles,) , . • . . . 22 00 11 00 

Via Hudson River, New- York Central, Buffalo and 
Brantford, (Canada,) Great Western, (Canada,) 
and Michigan Central Roads, (967 miles,) . 22 00 11 00 

In summer, the fares by the above routes will be about 18 00 9 00 

In summer, passengers can go, via New- York and 
Erie, or Hudson River and New- York Central, to 
Buffalo, there connecting with Lake Erie steam- 
ers to Detroit or Monroe ; thence, by Michigan 
Roads, to Chicago. Fare . . . . 10 00 8 00 

In summer, passengers can go by steamers on the Hudson River to 
Newburgh, there connecting with New- York and Erie Road; or to 
Albany, there connecting with New- York Central Road, Fare, one 
dollar less than above. 

Children over four years and under twelve years, half price ; under 
four years, free. Extra baggage, over one hundred pounds, $2 per 
hundred. 

Freight on farming tools and furniture, $1 50 per hundred pounds, 
which should be boxed in packages, not too large, well hooped, and 
plainly marked with paint, and not with cards. 

Prices from Boston and Philadelphia range at about the same rates. 



10 



Prices given for Corn, Wheat and Oats, at the Chicago Market, 
during the Season of 1854. 







SPRING 


WINTER 




1 


MONTHS. 


CORN. 


WHEAT. 


"WHEAT. 


OATS. 


January, . . . 


33 to 40 


93 to 95 


106 to 115 


26 


to 261 


February, . . . 


45 « 46 


IIY " 120 


130 " 140 


30 


" 31" 


March, . . . . 


49 " 50 


104 " 106 


120 " 130 


27 


" 281 


April, .... 


43 " 44 


100 " 100 


112 " 120 


261 


" 27 


May, 


43 " 45 


125 " 130 


140 " 150 


30 


" 31 


June, .... 


45 " 46 


128 " 130 


140 " 150 


30 


" 311 


July, . . . . 


50 " 51 


95 " 100 


115 " 120 


31 


" 33 


August, . . . 


54 " 55 


95 " 110 


140 " 150 


29 


" 30 


September, . . . 


60 " 61 


100 " 120 


130 " 140 


32 


" 33 


October, . 


54 » 55 


90 " 105 


130 " 140 


33 


" 34 


November, . . . 


50 " 52 


120 " 125 


130," 145 


32 


» 33 


December, . . 


46 " 47 


100 " 110 


112 " 125 


23 


" 28 



What Articles it will be best to Bring out from the East. 

Furniture.- — Highly finislied and costly furniture 
is mostly all brought from the East, and sold at a 
large advance in the West. If you use such furniture, 
it will pay you to have what you require boxed up 
and sent out from the East. Plain, substantial furniture, 
such as is generally used in farm-houses, can be had 
nearly if no quite as cheap as at the East. Stores of all 
kinds can be bought at reasonable prices 

Agricultural Tools 
more extensively made at the East, but reaping, mowing 
and threshing machines are extensively made at the 
West. Spades, shovels, &c., you can buy cheaper at the 
East, but ploughs of different kinds you can buy as 
reasonable here. 

Cows AND Oxen. — Good milch cows can be bought 
at from $15 to $20. Good, well-broke working oxen 
can be had at from $50 to $80 per yoke. 



Small agricultural tools are 



11 

Horses vary from $50 to $75 each. At these prices, 
good, strong-limbed, healthy animals can be purchased, 
suitable for farms. Horses are extensively and cheaply 
raised on the prairies for the Eastern market, and afford 
large profit. 



Eeaping and Threshing with Machinery hy Contract. 

Reaping Machines are almost altogether used at the 
West. They cost $170. They will cut fourteen acres 
of wheat per day. Contracts for reaping are made at 
62^ cents per acre. The contractor furnishes a driver 
and two horses; the farmer finds two horses, five 
binders and two shockers. 

Threshing Machines will thresh 300 bushels per day. 
It is generally contracted to be done at 5 cents per 
bushel, the contractor furnishing four horses and three 
hands ; the farmer furnishes four more horses and five 
more hands, making in all eight hands, viz. : one driver, 
one feeder, one measurer, one to pitch sheaves, one to 
cut bands, and three to take away straw. 



TOWN LOTS. 



At about every ten miles along the Road, the com- 
pany have erected large and commodious passenger, 
station and freight houses. Around most of these,, 
dwellings and stores have been erected, since the com- 
pletion of the Rail-Road. Merchants and mechanics 
are gathering at these stations, to accommodate the 
wants of the rapidly growing farming population sur- 
rounding them. At most of the stations the company 



12 

owns tlie town plats. Lots are offered on extremely 
liberal terms, to any who wish to purchase and build on 
them. 

Great opportunities are offered at these various 
stations for embarking in the mercantile business, 
dealing in lumber- or grain, pork and beef packing, or 
in a general produce business. A country so fruitful 
and productive, with a population rapidly filling it up, 
must make each and all of these profitable. 



FURTHER INFORMATION. 

Sectional Maps of the Lands of the Company, 
showing the precise position of every piece of land in 
various parts of the State, owned by the Company, 
can be had at the Chicago Land Office. Plats of their 
towns at the various stations throughout the State, 
can also be seen at that office. For any further in- 
formation, apply personally or by letter, in English, 
French or German, to 

CHARLES M. DU PUY, Jr., 

Land Agent, 
No. 52 MicMgan Avenue^ Chicago. 

Land Department, III. C. R. R. Co., ) 
Chicago^ March 1, 1855. f 



LETTERS IN REGARD TO SOIL, ETC. 



LETTER FROM REV. JOHN S. BARGER, 

GIVING HIS EXPERIENCE IN BREAKING UP AND CULTIVATING A FARM IN 
THE VICINITY OF THE RAIL-ROAD. 



Clinton, De Witt Co., Illinois, ) 
January 22, 1855. ) 

Mr. Charles M. Du Pur, Jr., 

Land Agent: 

Dear Sir, — Yours of the Sth iilt. was received a few days since, and I 
now answer it, as soon as has been consistent with other obligations. 

The statistical information, in the form of facts, substantiated by 
farmers throughout the State, which you propose embodying in your 
contemplated circular, designed to show " the result of well-directed 
efforts in Illinois farming," and to which I have the honor of being re- 
quested to contribute, I regret to say, I am not so well prepared to give 
in detail, as many others, from whom doubtless you will obtain it. 
Nevertheless, I may at least say, that in your very complimentary re- 
mark, you judge correctly in part, that " among those who have broken 
up the wild prairie, and by judicious management realized large profits," 
I have been " very successful." Yet, when the fact is known, as it should 
be, in order to a correct judgment in my case, that I have been an itine- 
rant minister in the M. E. Church, without any cessation, since 1823, 
(the 20th year of my age,) it will be reasonably concluded that I would 
have been yet more successful had my efforts and management been 
directed by the superior skill of a well-trained and practical farmer. 

But, as you have particularly requested the facts in my own case, as 
heretofore explained to you, I here offer these f;icts, taken from my 
memoranda, for whatever use you may think proper to make of them, 
and will leave the other details you desire to other hands, better pre- 
pared to give them. 

From 1848 to 1850, I purchased, in De Witt County, and nearly 
adjoining Clinton, (the County seat,) 400 acres of fine fiirming land 



14 

through which the Illinois Central Railway passes, and, in the vicinity, 
three timbered lots, containing 140 acres; making 540, at a cost of 
$1,513 19, In the spring of 1853, I determined to make my farm, and 
accordingly contracted for the breaking of 300 acres, at $600 ; also, for 
making 400 rods offence, at $4 75 per 100 rails in the fence, $494 19 ; 
making, together, $1,094 19, Having obtained the privilege of joining 
to 720 rods of fence on adjoining ferms, I thus enclosed 360 acres, and 
had 280 prepared for seeding. 

The breaking was done from the 27th of May to the 9th of July. 
The greater portion of this ploughed land might, therefore, have been 
planted in corn, and harvested in time for seeding with wheat ; and 
thus I might have added considerably to the avails of the first year, had 
I not been 80 miles distant, engaged in the labors of the Jacksonville 
district. 

I paid for seeding 300 acres, . . . $230 00 

" "325 bushels seed wheat, . 243 75 

Add the cost of making the farm, . . 1,094 19 $1,567 94 

I paid for harvesting, threshing, sacking and 
delivering at the Clinton Depot, distant from 
the farm from ^ to 1;J^ miles, . . . 1,650 00 

Making the entire expenditure, . . 3,217 94 

sold, at the Clinton Depot, 4,3 78|^ bushels 
wheat, for ..... . 

I kept for bread, ..... 

Making the gross income of the first year of . 

From which take the entire expenditure, . 

And you have the net proceeds of the first year. 
To which add the cost of making the farm, 

Making entire avails of the first year, 

Furthermore, to do justice to the productiveness of the soil, and to 
show what the well-directed eftbrts and judicious management of a well- 
trained and practical Illinois former would have done, it should be stated 
that, at least in my judgment, some 1,500 bushels of wheat were wasted 
by untimely and careless harvesting and threshing, equal to $1,500 net 
proceeds. Then add $55 33, excess of payments for ploughing and seed- 
ing only 280 acres, which a skilful farmer would have known before 
making his contracts, and you have a loss, which ought to have been a gain, 
of $1,555 33. This amount saved would have showed the avails of the 
first year's operation, on 280 acres of the farm, to have been $3,860 40. 



4,378 
60 


82 
00 


4,428 
3,217 


82 
94 


> • 


$1,210 
1,094 


88 
19 


• 


$2,305 


07 



15 

Now, Sir, if one under such circumstances, with but little more than 
a theoretical knowledge of farming, has succeeded even thus well, hav- 
ing hired all the labor, and mostly at very high prices, how much larger 
profits might have been realized by a skilful and practical farmer de- 
voting his whole time and attention to his appropriate occupation? 
How much more successful thousands of farmers and farmers' sons on 
our Eastern seaboard, and in our Eastern States might be, were they, or 
could they, be induced to move on, and apply their skill, industry and 
economy in the cultivation of the rich and productive prairies of lUinois. 

Let them come, by thousands and tens of thousands — there is room 
enough — and examine the country. They will find rich lands and good 
water, and general health, almost everywhere. This is not a wilder- 
ness. They will find schools and churches springing up in almost 
every settlement made, and now being made, throughout the State. 
Illinois is not a moral desolation. It literally and spiritually " blossoms 
as the rose." Let them come to Chicago, and go to Galena, and visit 
Cairo. But let them not remain at either place, unless they choose. 
The Illinois Central Rail-Road and its branches traverse the finest por- 
tions of the globe. Let them glide through our State on these and other 
roads, now checkering almost the entire of this " garden of the Lord," 
and stop where they will, to " examine the land, of what sort it is," and 
they will no longer consent to digamong the rocks, and plough the sterile 
lands of their forefathers. But they will long bless the day when they 
found for themselves and their children such comfortable homes as 
they still may obtain, in this rich and beautiful prairie State, destined 
soon to compare with, nay, to surpass, in all the most desirable respects, 
the most prosperous State in the Union. 

I will now give you a concise history of the operations of Mr. Funk. 
Both before and since his marriage, he had made rails for his neighbors 
at twenty-five cents per 100. But when the lands where he lived came 
into market, 25 years ago, he had saved of his five years' earnings, 
$1,400, and says, if he had invested it all in lands he would now have 
been rich. With ^200 he bought his first quarter section, and loaned 
to his neighbors $800, to buy their homes ; and with the remaining 
8400 he purchased a lot of cattle. With this beginning, Mr. Funk now 
owns 7,000 acres of land, has near 2,700 in cultivation, and his last 
year's sale of cattle and hogs, at the Chicago market, amounted to a 
little over $44,000. 

Mr. Isaac Funk, of Funk's Grove, nine miles distant from his 
brother Jesse, and ten miles northwest from Bloomington on the Mis- 



16 

sissippi and Chicago Rail-Road, began the world in Illinois at the same 
time, having a little the advantage of Jesse, so far as having a little bor- 
rowed capital. He now owns about 27,000 acres of land, has about 
4,000 acres in cultivation, and his last sales of cattle at Chicago 
amounted to f 65,000. 

These families have enjoyed almost uninterrupted health. Mr. Isaac 
Funk has had 10 children, and Mr. Jesse Funk 8. In the family of 
Isaac, one died of fever ; and in that of Jesse, one by an accidental fall 
from a wagon. 

Yours, truly, 

JOHN S. BARGER. 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER OF B. G. ROOT. 

"Fencing is the hardest work which a new settler here has to per- 
form. Good white oak rails, laid up in fence, where it is required, are 
worth from $2 to $3 per hundred. To lessen the cost of fencing, 
it is very desirable for several friends to settle together, so that the land 
at first may be enclosed in one common field. 4,704 rails will fence 
20 acres ; 6,'720 will fence 40 acres; 13,440 rails will fence 160 acres; 
28,880 rails will fence one section, or 640 acres. 

" The spring following that which the prairie sod is broken up, a Mac- 
lura hedge should be set out around the portion chosen by each indi- 
vidual. Many of ray neighbors make their own hedges, but as a man 
can always dispose of his labor to advantage here, I believe it cheaper 
to buy it than to make it. Hedging has become a trade, to which a 
class of men devote themselves. They furnish the plants, set them in 
the ground, and cultivate them for four years, at 15 cents per rod a 
year, making the whole cost of hedge 60 cents per rod. At the expira- 
tion of four years, when the last payment upon the hedge is due, it is 
a perfect barrier against bulls, pigs and all other animals. The rails of 
which the outside fence was made are then sold to somebody else, or 
used to make interior fences. They will last for twenty years, and I 
know not how much longer. Sixteen years ago, I purchased an old im- 
provement. Most of the rails with which it was ench.sed aie still good. 

"New prairie is broken to advantage from the 15th of April to the 
10th of July, but I prefer to have it broken from the 10th of May to the 
10th of June. That which is broken previous to the 10th of June, I 



17 

plant in corn, which yields from 20 to 45 bushels per acre. As it 
receives no cultivation after it is planted, it is more affected by good or 
bad seasons than crops which are cultivated. That which is broken up 
after the 10th of June is sown with wheat in September, and always 
yields well. Corn which is planted before the 20th of May is often cut 
up and wheat sown on the same ground in September or October ; but 
wheat which is sown so late is sure not to produce as well as that sown 
early. Oats do not do very well upon prairie, until the ground has been 
cultivated two or three years ; but the year following that on which it is 
first broken up, it is in excellent condition to produce wheat, barley, 
corn, flax-seed, castor beans,, and every kind of garden vegetable which 
is raised in New England, and excellent sweet potatoes in abundance. 

"With a good plough and two pairs of good horses, one man can break 
up one and a half acres per day, of the new prairie. Two good yoke 
of cattle will break up nearly the same quantity of ground, but in this 
case a boy is required to drive them. Three good yoke of cattle will 
break two acres per day. Previous to 1853, the customary price for 
breaking prairie was from $1 50 to $2 per acre; but in 1853 the 
common price was $2 50 per acre ; and, as the demand for labor always 
exceeds the supply, I think it will not be less than this sum for several 
years to come. 

" Common farm hands receive from $110 to $130 per annum, and their 
board. I employ a good practical working farmer, who takes charge of 
every thing pertaining to the farm. I furnish him house, garden and 
fruit trees, free of rent, and pay him $250 per annum. He, with the 
aid of a boy twelve years of age, five breeding mares and $10 worth of 
occasional aid, attends to forty acres in corn, ten in wheat, ten in oats, six 
in flax, (cultivated only for the seed,) ten in meadow of old ground, and 
breaks up and plants in sod corn twenty acres of new prairie. We 
commence planting corn from the 1st to the 20th of April, and finish 
from the 1st to the 10th of June. I once raised an excellent crop 
planted on the 23d of June. I cut up my corn stalks near the ground, 
before the frost comes, and shock it up. We pull the ears from that 
which is to be fed to dry cows and steers, who do well on the fodder and 
such nubbins as are left upon it. If we wish to fatten cattle in the 
winter, we give them the fodder with the ears all remaining on it. 

"At the stations on the rail-road we can sell every thing we can spare 
at nearly Chicago or New Orleans prices, less the cost of transportation. 
I believe the charge from here to Chicago is 24 cents per bushel. 

" We raise what is here called sugar-corn, to eat green. We have it fit 

2 



18 

for cooking from the 20th of June till October. We raise two crops of 
this and one crop of turnips on the same ground in one season. We 
receive, in excellent condition, fresh fish from the lake, via Chicago, and 
tropical fruits via New Orleans and Cairo. The facility with which we 
dispose of whatever we have to sell, and procure whatever we wish to 
purchase, the mildness of the climate and the fertility of the soil, render 
this a most desirable residence. If you will once visit us, you will 
abandon all idea of settling in Iowa. You will learn all you wish to 
know respecting the terms upon which land can be procured, from the 
pamphlet which I send you. After your farm is once fenced, you will 
have very little use for timber land. Coal here is rapidly taking the 
place of wood, as fuel. If wood were furnished free at my door, in logs 
of ten feet, I could not aflPord to burn it. I buy coal at such a rate, 
that it is cheaper to burn it than to prepare wood for stoves and fire- 
places. Coal is so abundant that all southern Illinois will always be 
supplied at a low rate. 

" Numerous saw-mills are being erected in the timber along the rail- 
road, south of Big Muddy River. Some are completed, and lumber yards 
are established at almost every station, where the pine of the North 
meets the poplar, cypress, black walnut, sycamore, maple and oak, from 
the South. There are saw-mills in the smaller portions of timber which 
occur at short intervals in this part of the State, but they are fully occu- 
pied in supplying the demand in their immediate vicinity. 

"I planted an orchard of apple and peach trees in 1843. The peach 
trees commenced bearing in 1845, and the apple in 1847 ; and, although 
the yield is not uniform in amount, we have enough excellent fruit every 
year. My cherries, currants, gooseberries and grapes have received 
very little attention, but they yield abundantly. Clover is a difiicult 
crop to start, well, but when once well set, it thrives. Timothy, red 
orchard grass and blue grass, set easily after the prairie has been culti- 
vated, and yield well. The greatest difiiculty here is the want of labor. 
It is so easy to become the owner of land, that almost every man who 
is worth hiring, becomes the owner of a farm within a few years, and 
wants to hire laborers himself. 

" Very respectfully, 

«B. G. ROOT." 



I 



19 

LETTER FROM A. J. GALLOWAY. 

FABM IN THE VICINITY OF THE COMPANY'S LANDS. 



EwiNGTON, EfEngham Co., Illinois, "i 
February 12,1855, \ 
Charles M. Du Put, Esq., 

Land Agent Illinois Central Rail-Road : 

Dear Sir, — My residence in Illinois began in April, ISST. During 
the first four years I resided in WabasLi County, after -vvhicli I removed 
to the northern part of the State, and in 1842, purchased some lands 
in La Salle County. From that until the present time, I have been 
making, cultivating and extending my farm. 

The subsoil of the prairie land througliout the State, with a few 
exceptions, is a compact clay, through which water settles but slowly, 
thus securing great durability to the natural soil, as well as efiectually 
preventing the escape of artificial manures, by the process of leeching. 
Upon very level prairie, this characteristic causes the land to be too wet 
for the profitable cultivation of the several kinds of grain, without some 
special preparation ; this, however, may be almost universally overcome 
by manuring, and deep and thorough ploughing ; deep ploughing alone 
will prove effectual in a large majority of instances. 

South of the parallel of forty-one degrees north latitude, the staple 
production is, and must continue to be, Indian corn or maize, though 
almost all grain and vegetables, groAvn in a temperate climate, may be 
profitably cultivated, and should not be neglected. 

During my residence upon my farm in La Salle County, (fur average 
crop of corn, say on a field of eighty acres, did not vary much from fifty 
bushels per acre. Winter wheat, (for I think spring wheat a nuisance,) 
upon a field of thirty acres, varied in different years from nineteen to 
twenty-three bushels per acre, harvested with McCormick's Reaper, and 
threshed and separated by machines built at Alton, Illinois. Oats varied 
from forty to sixty bushels per acre, and in one instance, upon a small 
lot of four acres, I obtained almost one hundred bushels per acre. 

My estimate for the cost of production and preparation for market, 
previous to 1850, after allowing thirty-three per cent, of the crop for the 
use of the land, was forty cents per bushel for wheat, and about fifteen 
cents per bushel for corn and oats. 

I could usually obtain good farm hands (men) at one hundred to one 
hundred and twenty dollars per year, with board and lodging furnished. 

The many difficulties with which a single hand upon a farm has to 



20 

contend, render it hard to say what one man, with a pair of horses, can 
cultivate properly — certainly not to exceed forty acres ; whereas, two 
men, with four horses, could readily manage a hundred acres, and three 
men, with about five horses, one hundred and sixty acres, in addition to 
the usual amount of land devoted to meadow and grasses. 

In reply to your ninth interrogatory, I would say that south of the 
parallel I have mentioned, nearly one-half of the whole farm devoted to 
grain and vegetables, should be planted in corn, and three-fourths of the 
remainder in wheat and oats, in about equal quantities. The cultivation 
of barley, rye, potatoes, &c., should be governed by the character of 
the farm, its position in relation to markets, and somewhat by the tastes, 
education and habits of the farmer. 

In La Salle County, where wood land is not so plenty as it is in this 
region, a good common rail fence would cost about seventy-five cents per 
rod, but I have contracted for a number of miles of such fence, eight 
rails high, staked and riddered, with a sound block under each corner, to 
be built in this and some other counties for the Illinois Central Rail-Road, 
at the rate of fifty cents per rod. 

I have tried different methods of turning up or breaking prairie sod, 
and am fully satisfied that where the prairie is clear, that is, destitute of 
hazel bushes or other woody growth, a man who understands the busi- 
ness, with a good pair of horses and a plough properly constructed, such 
as was manufactured a few years since in Indian Town, Bureau County, 
can do the work better and cheaper than in any other way that has ever 
come under my observation. One acre and a half per day is a fair 
average fof such a team. Prairie should alwaj-s be broken between the 
10th of May and the 20th of June, in the latitude of La Salle County. 
In this county the work should be completed as early as the 10th of 
June. 

For persons wishing to make a settlement in Illinois, I should advise 
about the same course for almost any part of the State with which I am 
acquainted. The first thing such person should do is to make a personal 
examination of the country, and select a location. Then if he should 
have the means to spare, and could purchase forty or eighty acres of 
good prairie land, not more than five miles from where materials for 
building, fencing and fuel can be obtained, at reasonable rates, and get 
a long credit upon three-fourths of the purchase money, I should advise 
him to secure it at once. 

He should then procure a good pair of horses and wagon, a cow, a few 
pigs, and some poultry, and two good ploughs, one for breaking prairie and 



21 

the other for cultivating land already subdued. Thus provided, it would 
be well if he could rent a small tenement with a few acres of improved land 
near his own, for a year or two, until he could get his farm under way. 
But if no such tenement could be obtained, ho should at once build a 
cheap house upon his own land, and push forward his improvements. 

Prairie sod broken in the manner and at the time heretofore stated, 
will be sufficiently rotten to cross plough as early as the tenth of August. 
This cross ploughing should not be neglected, and in the north of the State 
wheat should be sown broad-cast, and harrowed both ways, or drilled in 
by a proper machine, about the first of September. Wheat sown upon 
such land in this manner, rarely fails to produce an excellent crop. The 
next two years after the wheat is taken off the ground, two good crops 
of corn may be produced, with comparatively little labor. Oats is per- 
haps the proper grain for the fourth crop ; and by that time, if the new 
settler be a man of reasonably perceptive powers, he will have made 
himself sufficiently well acquainted with the soil, climate, rotation of 
crops, etc., to manage his farm to good advantage. Much may be learned 
from the many agricultural periodicals with which our country abounds, 
and no farmer should be without one or more of these valuable aids. 
But, to succeed well, he must thoroughly investigate the local pecuHari- 
ties of his own neighborhood, and especially those of his own farm. 

There is a general and growing disposition throughout the State to 
educate ; and in a very few years all the educational facilities which exist 
in the Eastern States will be at the command of the citizens of Illinois. 

There is little disease at any time in the State, which may not be traced, 
directly or indirectly, to derangement in the biliary organs, and much of 
this should, no doubt, be attributed to the free use of heavy bread, strong 
coflfee, and a large amount of animal food, to the partial or total exclusion 
of vegetable diet. I think I am free from prejudice wben I say that, ex- 
cept in the valleys of tbe larger streams, but more especially upon the high 
rolling prairies of middle and northern Illinois, a more healthy country 
is not to be found, even in the mountainous districts of the older States. 

In these hasty lines I have endeavored to answer some of your inter- 
rogatories as categorically as their nature would permit,without attempting 
to sustain my opinions by argument. If they should prove of the least 
service to you or others, I shall be more than compensated for the very 
little time and attention which I have felt at liberty to bestow upon them. 
Respectfully, 

Your ob't serv't, 

A. J. GALLOWAY. 



22 

LETTER FROM C. G. TAYLOR 

}E, Rock 
February 8th, 1855. 



Plkasakt Ridge, Rock Island Co., HI, ) 



Charles M. Du Put, Esq. : 

Dear Sir, — I was raised in Jefferson County, N. Y,, in and among 
the log cabins, stumps, rocks and snow banks. My father was a farmer. 
I know full well what it costs to farm in Northern New- York, from the 
felling of the first tree, to the farm under good cultivation. I moved to 
this State in the spring of 1844, and have been engaged in farming most 
of the time since. The soil of Illinois is a dark, rich mould, varying 
fi-om two to six feet in depth, of clay bottom. There is but little sandy 
soil in this part of the State. About one-tenth is covered with timber, 
and that usually on the borders of our rivers and small streams. Tim- 
ber land is held at from $10 to $50 per acre, according to location and 
quality. 

Our water is usually hard. There are not many springs, owing to the 
lowness of the land, but water is easily obtained by digging, and usually 
found in abundance, at the depth of from ten to twenty-five feet. There 
is, in general, a great supply of water for cattle, in our ravines and 
sloughs. 

Stone and brick for cellars are scarce on our prairies, but cement, 
plastered on a mud wall, answers very well, and makes a neat and dry 
cellar. Fencing materials are also scarce. Pine lumber and oak posts 
are now mostly used by the new settlers. This kind of fence can be put 
up at about 80 to 90 cents per rod ; depending, however, somewhat on 
the distance it has to be hauled. Materials for building are procured in 
rafts on our rivers, or at Chicago, and taken by team or rail-road, to 
any part of the State. 

The breaking of prairie is mostly done in May and June, and gener- 
ally with ox-teams of four or six yoke, — the plough cutting a furrow from 
sixteen to twenty-two inches wide and about three inches deep. Of late, 
however, so many improvements have been made in the form and draught 
of ploughs, that much of our vast prairie lands can easily be broken with 
one pair of horses, which can plough from one and a quarter to one and a 
half acres per day, which is preferable to that done with a large plough* 
This every farmer can do with his own team, and cheaper than to hire 
and pay $2 50 per acre. I broke fifteen acres last summer, at the rate 
of one and a half acres per day, with a pair of mares, each having colts, 
and did it to perfection. The ploughs are made at Moline, in this county, 



23 

at the rate of one hundred and fifty per week, by J. Drew. They are 
made of the best German steel for $10. A rolling coulter is better. 
These ploughs are scattered, by rail-roads, all over the State. 

Sod corn, if planted in the month of May, and the weather is not too 
warm, will yield, per acre, from twenty to forty bushels. The planting 
is done by sticking an ax or a spade between the layers of sod, and, 
after dropping the corn, apply the heel of the hoot freely. It needs no 
culture. If a very light crop of corn is raised, the stalks may be remov- 
ed and the ground sown with winter wheat. If a heavy crpp of corn is 
raised, it will take too much work to clear the ground of the stalks, and 
the stumps and roots will be a great hindrance to the hkrrow, as the corn 
roots are strongly set in the sod. As sod corn cannot be relied on with 
safety, it is, perhaps, better to let the sod lie until September, and then 
sow with wheat, and harrow thoroughly. This is almost invariably a sure 
crop, more so than any of the after ones, as the sod holds the roots dur- 
ing our usually dry and snowless winter. Or, the sod may lie till spring, 
and then be sown with spring wheat, and harrowed only. Let it be cross- 
ploughed, and we have what no field can be in the Eastern States, with all 
the manure combined. The soil being a black mould, and very mellow, 
any thing will grow in it that grows in this latitude. Spring wheat and 
oats are liable to grow too rank. They should be sown as soon as the 
frost is out of the ground, that the straw may have a stunted growth, 
If sown late, say after the first of April, too much straw is grown, which 
is liable to cause the wheat to blast, smut, &c. We have no summer 
fallows in this section, having seen none in Illinois. "We raise but little 
winter wheat after the first crop, on the first breaking, until we break up 
a tame meadow or pasture ; then again we have a fine crop. Our usual 
mode of raising spring wheat, oats and barley, is to sow on the fall plough- 
ing, or on corn ground without ploughing, only harrowing. I raised over 
twenty-five bushels per acre, of the best of wheat, last year, on corn 
ground, without ploughing, and sixty bushels of oats. One team can do 
the work on a farm of fifty or sixty acres, if all the breaking is done. 
All stubble land should be ploughed in the fall, and be ready for the small 
grain in the spring. One man and two horses can easily tend thirty to 
forty acres of corn, one ploughing for which is suflicient ; then mark off 
both ways, rows about three and a half feet wide, and plant the seed 
with a machine or a hoe. A man can cover four acres per day ; a small 
boy can drop the seed. Harrow with a three-cornered harrow, by knock- 
ing out the forward teeth, so soon as the corn is out of the ground, then 
use the cultivator or one-horse plough, and work it both ways ; twice work- 



24 

ing after harrowing is sufficient ; no hoeing required. A fair yield of 
winter wheat is about twenty-five bushels per acre ; spring wheat, twenty 
to thirty ; oats, forty to seventy-five ; barley, twenty to forty ; winter 
rye, twenty to thirty ; corn, forty to eighty; potatoes, 100 to 300. 

We commence to harvest our corn about the 10th of October. There 
is more harvested in December than in any other month. Corn can be 
raised and cribbed at 121 cents per bushel. Our small grain is all cut 
by machinery. A machine follov?ed by six binders cut and shock from 
ten to fifteen acres per day. Price of cutting, 50 to 62 1 cents per acre. 
To binders, we pay from $1 to $1 25 per day. As it is impossible 
to house all our grain, it is stacked. Threshing is also done by ma- 
chinery. This, with cleaning, will cost 5 cents per bushel for wheat ; 
oats, 21 cents. The straw is usually stacked, to which the cattle have 
free access during the winter. 

Our market is at Chicago or St. Louis, No part of our State is far 
from rail-road or steamboat shipping, having about 1,800 miles of 
the former now in good running order, and about 1,000 miles of river 
navigation. 

Our charges correspond with the Eastern market, with the freight 
charge deducted. 

Our soil is well calculated for the production of the tame grasses. 
Our meadows yield from one and a half to three tons per acre. Ground 
that has been mown for ten or fifteen years, i^roduces better crops than 
the new land, because the top soil, which is principally composed of de- 
cayed grass and the ashes deposited by annual burnings, is very loose 
and open. After deep ploughing, and comparatively using up this top 
soil, we obtain a more compact and fine soil, which will hold the roots of 
the grass firm and secure. Clover grows luxuriously, but the trouble is, 
there is not a suflficient quantity sown to supply the great demand. 

There has, until lately, but little attention been paid to the raising of 
stock. At this present time, we can boast of being equal to the other 
States, in some choice selections of the best stock in the Union. Only 
a small portion of our prairie is yet broken. The cattle roam as upon a 
" thousand hills" during the summer ; but in the winter are fed upon 
straw, standing corn stalks and prairie hay. Very little corn fodder is 
cut and cured, being too heavy to handle. Probably nine-tenths of our 
hay, as yet, is cut upon our prairies, which makes, if well cured, excel- 
lent feed. Any quantity of this hay can be cut in any section, yielding 
from one to three tons per acre. I have fed, for several winters, between 
sixty and ninety head of cattle upon prairie hay, and have not lost a 



25 

single one by disease. Our hay is cut by mowing machines at 50 to 62^ 
cents per acre. It costs, counting work, board of hands, &c., about one 
to two dollars per ton in the stack. The feed for a cow, aside from grain, 
will not exceed $3 per year. Our pasture is free. Our prairie grass is 
fully equal to tame grass for butter, cheese, &c., up to the time of frost, 
which is usually about the 10th of October. The product from my dairy 
of about thirty-five cows, for the last six years, has been on an average 
about $20 per cow, beside the slop for hogs, and the feed for nearly as 
many calves. Last year the price of butter in this part of the State was 
twelve and a half cents per pound ; cheese nine to twelve and a half cents. 
I think these figures will be near the standard for years to come. 

In regard to fruit, I would just mention that Whiteside County, Illi- 
nois, took the first prize at New- York last fall. Apple trees, to any 
amount and of all varieties, can be had in our nurseries from 121 to 15 
cents a piece. No new or old settler should fail to raise the Osage 
Orange or Madura hedge. With proper care, in four years he will have 
a living fence, the entire cost of which will not have exceeded 25 cents 
per rod. How beautiful will our State aj)pear, in a few more years, with 
our farms surrounded by this evergreen shrub. There is no State in 
the Union that can support so large a population as Illinois. Now not 
more than one-twelfth part of the surface is under cultivation. There is 
scarcely an acre that can be called waste ground. We have no moun- 
tains nor rocks ; no stumps to grub out ; no stones to pick off", and seldom 
a snow bank to wallow through. I believe if this State were cultivated 
as New-York or Massachusetts, it would feed the Union. The popula- 
tion is about 1,000,000. A grant of one thirty-sixth part of land is set 
apart by Congress for public schools. Our State debt will all be paid in 
a few years, by the internal resources, without the increase of taxation. 
This debt has been a bug-bear to some of our Eastern friends, declining 
to locate with us, for fear of being obliged to help pay it. This objection 
is now removed. Why the Eastern emigrants seek a home in Nebraska, 
Minnesota or even Iowa, is strange to my mind. lUinois has all the ad- 
vantages that any reasonable man could desire. Our rail-roads are now 
so connected that we have access to any part of the Union, and the East- 
ern market is brought to our very doors. 

For the information of some who are desirous to know more definite 
particulars, I will here add the course pursued by my first neighbor, 



26 

William Waite, in starting his prairie farm. In the spring of 1853 he 
bought eighty acres of prairie, for $4,50 per acre, making 

Whole value of the entire farm to be only $360 

Broke 60 acres, at $2 50 per acre 150 

Fenced 60 acres, $1 per rod, 400 rods of board fence, 400 ■ 

Sowed 40 acres with winter wheat, l-J- bushels to the acre, at $1 

per bushel, 60 

Sowing and harrowing, "75 cents per acre, 30 

Harvesting and marketing, $1 50 per acre, 60 

Threshing and cleaning 1,100 bushels, at 10 cents per bushel, 110 

■ Hauling 15 miles to rail-road, 6 cents per bushel, 66 — $1,236 

Planted twenty acres with corn : 

Ploughing 20 acres in the spring, at 75 cents, $15 

Marking off and planting, 15 

Cultivating, at $1 25 per acre 25 

Harvesting, at $1 per acre 20 

Threshing and hauling 15 miles, to rail-road, 1,000 bushels, at 

10 cents per bushel, 100 



Total cost of farm and crops, $1,411 

1,100 bushels of wheat, at $1 15 per bushel $1,265 

1,000 bushels of coru, at 28 cents per bushel 280 

Total amount of crops $1,545 

Profits of 60 acres, after paying all expenses, &c., $134 

and 20 acres of land unbroken. This farm is now worth |25 per acre. 
EespectfuUy yours, C. G. TAYLOR. 



LETTER FROM W. H. MUNN, ESQ., MARSHALL CO., ILL. 
Mr. Du Puy : 

Dear Sir, — Yours of the 2d instant, containing many important 
questions relative to what an industrious farmer can do on the prairies of 
Illinois, has been received, and though I am very busy at this time 
grafting, I will not delay giving you a brief reply. 

You ask me to state my own case, but I wish to be excused, for I 
have devoted the most of my time and attention to the cultivation of the 
Madura hedge plant, ever since I have been a resident of the State. 

An industrious man, who has but a small capital ($200 to $400) to 
commence with, can soon have a farm, of one hundred and sixty acres, 
in good state of cultivation, provided he has health, and is a good 
economist. 

In the first place he must put up a shanty of some kind to live in ; 
then some kind of a cheap fence that will turn cattle and horses, (these 
being the only stock permitted to rim at large,) for four or five years, 
and by that time he can have a good living fence that will turn all kinds 
of stock, and be as durable almost as the land upon which it stands. 



27 

About the 1st of May is the time to commence breating prairie. A 
good pair of horses will turn from one and a half to two acres per day. 

What is not planted in corn should be sown in fall wheat, and will 
generally turn off about twenty bushels per acre. New land is the best 
for wheat, and the third crop is considered the best for corn. 

Prairie breaking is worth from |2 to $2 25 per acre. Good hands 
demand here, for the last two years, from $175 to $200 per annum. 

After the first year's crop, we get from ten to twenty bushels of wheat 
per acre, and from thirty to fifty of corn. An industrious man can 
manage eighty acres, by having a little help in seed time and harvest. 
The prairie grass makes excellent hay for cattle and horses. It is some- 
what difficult to sell the crop in the field, as every man has as much of 
his own raising to harvest as he can get done in good time. 

I have travelled considerably, but I know of no other State that affords 
to the farmer so many conveniences as this one. It costs but little to 
make a farm, and when it is made it is a good one — one that, with 
proper management, will always yield a good crop, which, delivered at 
some rail-road station, will always bring a good price. Improvements 
pay well, should you vdsh to sell the farm. 

The above was written in great haste, and the half is not told. You 
may use it if you think it will be of any service to you or any one. 

Yours, very respectfully, W. H. MUNN. 



LETTER FROM J. AMBROSE WIGHT, ESQ., 

EDITOR OF THE PRAIPaE FARMER, 

Charles M. Du Puy, Esq. : 

Dear Sir, — At your request I would state that, from an acquaintance 
with Illinois lands and Illinois farmers, of eighteen years, thirteen of 
which I have been engaged as editor of the Prairie Farmer, I am pre- 
pared to give the following as the rates of produce which may be had 
per acre, with ordinary culture : 

Winter wheat 15 to 25 bushels. 

Spring wheat, 10 to 20 " 

Indian corn, 40 to 70 " 

Oats 40 to 80 " 

Potatoes 100 to 200 " 

Grass, (timothy and clover,) li to 3 tons. 

" Ordinary culture " on prairie lands is not what is meant by the term 
in the Eastern or Middle States. It means, here, no manure ; and com- 
monly hut once, or, at most, twice ploughing, on perfectly smooth land, 
with long furrows, and no stones or obstructions ; when two acres per 



28 

day is no hard job for one team. It is often but very poor culture, with 
shallow ploughing, and without attention to weeds. 

I have known crops, not unfrequently, far greater than these, with but 
little variation in their treatment ; say forty to fifty bushels of winter 
wheat, sixty to eighty of oats, three hundred of potatoes, and one hun- 
dred of Indian corn. " Good culture,^'' which means rotation, deep 
ploughing, farms well stocked, and some manure, applied at intervals of 
from three to five years, would, in good seasons, very often approach 
these latter figures. 

Yours, truly, J. AMBROSE WIGHT. 

January 9, 1855. 

LETTER FROM H. H. HENDRICK. 

Batavia, Kane Co., 111., Feb. 21, 1856. 
Charles Du Put, Esq.': 

Dear Sir, — Your letter and circular of February 2d was received a 
few days since. Owing, I suppose, to the obstructions of the rail-roads 
by the snow, and further, as I have changed my place of residence, and 
purchased a small place near Batavia, your letter was first sent to 
Northville, and then back to Batavia, which retarded it still longer. 
But I will now endeavor to answer your questions, from my own expe- 
rience, as well as I can. 

When I first came to Illinois, in November, 1835, I had but small 
means to commence with in a new country. The next spring I went 
eighteen miles north of Chicago, and purchased a claim (as it was then 
called) of one hundred and sixty acres, and commenced improvement. 
I practiced surveying to some extent, which enabled me to purchase 
necessaries, till I could procure them from my own soil. After staying- 
there six years, not liking that portion of the country very well, I sold 
out, and purchased upwards of two hundred acres on the west side of 
Fox River, twenty miles above Ottowa, for which I paid a little less than 
$2 50 per acre. I then commenced improving it ; and as my means 
were still very limited, I was obliged to proceed with caution. However, 
I got up a house, fenced and broke up seventy acres in two seasons, with 
very little help. My plough cut about twenty or twenty- two inches, and I 
broke about two acres per day, with four yoke of cattle, the sod being 
very tough. I sometimes put on five yoke. I then sowed twenty acres 
with winter wheat, on ground from which one crop had been taken, and 
twenty acres of spring wheat, on new prairie, after the ground had been 
ploughed again in the spring. The whole was good, and yielded twenty 



29 

bushels per acre, of the first quality. But, as wheat was then, and for 
several years afterwards, very low, and we had to transport it a long- 
distance to market with teams, it little more than paid the expense of 
raising, &c. One year I had twenty-five bushels of wheat on ground 
from which one crop of corn had been taken ; and had the weather been 
not quite so hot a few days before harvest, I think it would have yielded 
thirty bushels. My average crops have been from fifteen to twenty-two 
bushels per acre ; one year, and only one, I had but thirteen and one 
half bushels. 

The best way, I think, to raise winter wheat on new prairie, is to 
break it in June very shallow, and cross-plough it a little deeper than it 
was broke, about the end of August ; then sow and harrow it well, and 
leave it as rough as you can. If among corn, sow about the last of 
August or first of September, and put it in with a double shovel plough, 
by going twice in a row. Stock must not be allowed to run on it, unless 
the ground is covered with snow. The stalks must be cut or broken 
down in the spring. To break them down, I take a pole, ten or twelve 
feet in length, and hitch a team to it so as to draw it sideways, when the 
snow is off", and the ground and stalks frozen, and break three rows at 
once. One man and team will break thirty acres in a day. I roll all 
my small grain in the spring, and think it grows evener, and know it is 
better harvesting. Wheat does well on the sod, if put in as I describe, 
often yielding twenty bushels or more per acre. Corn on sod is rather 
precarious. I have never tried to any extent, but some have raised 
twenty or thirty bushels per acre. 

My method of raising corn is to plough the ground deep, then mark it 
one way with my single shovel plough, about five inches deep, and about 
four feet apart, each way ; (any thing that will make a mark will do for 
one way ;) the corn is then dropped four kernels in a hill. I then take 
my two-shovel plough, and set the shovels apart, so as to drive the horse 
in the furrow, and turn the dirt from each side on the corn. This plan 
I find is very beneficial in wet weather, in carrying the surplus water 
off" the hills. Just as it is coming up, I take my harrow, and knock 
the centre teeth back so as not to drag up the corn ; I then take my 
team and drive with one horse on each side of the row, taking one row 
at a time, and harrow it all over. This leaves the ground in fine condi- 
tion. After a few days, I take my two-shovel plough, and go through it 
twice in a row, both ways; and if I have time, I go through it three 
times. This leaves the ground in fine order, and the corn, I think, fills 
out much better. I have grown corn, with stalks upwards of nine feet 
in length, and ears thirteen inches in length, and nine and a half inches 



30 

in circumference ; but these were extraordinary specimens, having grown 
where some straw had been burned the fall before. My corn is a larger 
kind than most of that grown throughout the country, and yields from 
fifty to seventy or eighty bushels per acre. The time for planting is 
from the first to the middle of May, or even earlier. One man can tend 
forty acres, provided he can have help to go through it with the plough 
the first time. 

I have raised fifty bushels of oats per acre, and nearly two hundred 
bushels of potatoes ; but they are not so sure. I find by experience that 
they do best planted about the middle of May, that they may be well 
advanced by the time the hot weather comes on ; or, not till after the 
middle of June, that they may have the benefit of the September rains. 
But last season late planted potatoes with us were almost an entire fail- 
ure. I find, by experience, that crops of all kinds do best put in early. 

For grazing, I think our lands may be ranked among the best, if right- 
ly managed. The dry land stock down with red clover, or timothy and 
clover, and the wet portions with red top. Clover does extremely well, 
and yields an abundant supply of feed. Timothy does better after the 
land has been cultivated for a short time. A slight dressing of manure, 
to change the nature of the soil, is a great help to it. Selling crops on 
the ground is not much practiced, but, as a general rule, I believe, about 
twice the freight from the station to Chicago, may be considered the 
difference in the price of produce at the station. Help last season was 
scarce, and wages very high, varj-ing from $14 to $18 per month, for 
seven or eight months together. The increase in value per acre would 
depend much on the size of the tract cultivated, A small farm would 
be worth more per acre, with the same improvements, than a very large 
one. For example, take 160 acres, purchased at $10 per acre : 

First cost on 160 acres, at $10 per acre, $1,600 00 

Breaking 100 acres, at $2 25 " 225 00 

160 rods fence, on front side or road, $1 per rod, 160 00 

Half of the other three sides, 240 00 

Building house, Ac. 500 00 

Fruit Trees, <fec 25 00 

Amounting to $2,750 00 

It is probably now worth $25 per acre, -which will be $4,000 00 

Leaving a profit for owner of 1,250 00 

Or, at $20 per acre, still leaves a balance of 450 00 

It is probable that the fence may be built for a little less than one dol- 
lar per rod ; but as I have made no allowance for cross-fences, yards, <fec., 
and calculated only half of three sides, and one whole side for the road, 
I think the excess of price will not more than pay the expense of build- 
ing the necessary fences inside. I have also left sixty acres for meadow 



31 

and pasture. If the purchaser have means to make the necessary im- 
provements, or most of them, I think he would do well to settle on such 
lands. 

From my own experience, I think the statements of Mr. Wight, editor 
of the " Prairie Farmer," all as near correct as can well be calculated. 
Spring wheat is rated a little below. But I have not paid extra attention 
to the growing of oats, and not much to wheat. A great portion of the 
lands through which the Illinois Central Rail-Road passes I have not 
seen, but judging from what I have, and the descriptions of those who 
are considered good judges, I should pronounce it an excellent tract. I ■ 
will now state my reasons for selling out where I was. Not having any 
help of my own, I was obliged to do all myself, or hire, and to get good 
hands was often diflBcult and expensive. I therefore concluded to sell, 
which I did, for $30 per acre, (200 acres,) as I stated, and live a little 
easier. I have in another place there yet seventeen and a half acres, 
and of an island seven and a half, both of which I have offers for, and 
think I shall sell them. 

Yours, respectfully, H. H. HENDRICK. 



LETTER OF W. R. HARRB. 

Palmyra, Lee Co., 111., Feb. IT, 1853. 

Mr. Charles Du Put, Jr. : 

Sir, — In reply to your inquiries in regard to Illinois farming, I will 
state that I commenced here in the spring of 184Y, with a capital of 
$700, with which I purchased twenty acres of timber and one hundred 
and sixty acres of prairie land. The first season I broke up fifty-five 
acres with a pair of horses and one yoke of oxen, breaking two acres 
per day. The third year I added eighty acres to my farm, and hired 
fifty acres broke, at $2 per acre. The fourth year I hired ten acres 
more broke, at $2 25 per acre, which gave me one hundred and fifteen 
acres under cultivation. This is all that I have had under cultivation, 
and I have sold the product this year for over $2,000. I have now 
been engaged here about eight years, and my capital of $700 has in- 
creased to between $8,000 to $10,000. 

We generally plant corn from the first to the twenty-fifth of May. 
The usual crop of sod corn will about pay for breaking, and the cost of 
raising. It will hardly come oflf in time for sowing fall wheat, but the 
ground will be in good order for sowing spring wheat, which will proba- 
bly yield from twenty-five to thirty bushels per acre. After the first 



32 

season, the average crop of corn is sixty bushels (shelled) per acre. 
One man, with a pair of horses, will tend forty acres of corn, and do it 
well. Our grain sells at the rail-road stations at about ten cents per 
sixty lbs. below the Chicago prices. The prairies are first rate grass 
lands, and well adapted to the raising of all kinds of stock. Wages 
vary from $15 to $20 per month. 

Yours, (fee, W. R. HARRIS. 



EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM H. BRADLEY, OF ROCKTON, ILL. 

" I plough the ground very deep, then mark it two feet each way ; then 
proceed to plant with a hand-planter, two rows at a time. Within five 
or six days, (just before the corn comes out of the ground,) brush the 
ground over with a light drag with short wooden teeth, thus displacing 
the weeds on the surface, and leaving it as smooth as an onion bed. 
Within a fortnight after the corn gets up, go through it once in a row 
each way with a corn plough, and the work of cultivation is done. Now 
is not this comparatively a cheap way of rasing corn ? I shall have at 
least sixty bushels per acre this dry season, besides having double the 
usual amount of fodder. * * * One man will plant as fast with 
the machine as four will with hoes, and do the work much better than 
can be done with the hoe, as the machine is so nicely adjusted as to drop 
from three to five kernels, pricking them all within the space of an inch 
and a half square, thus giving a much better chance to run the plough 
close to the hill, than if the hill occupied from four to six inches square, 
as it does planted with a hoe." 



The Illinois State Register gives an account of a crop of corn grown by J. N. 
Brown, Esq., of Sangamon county. His address is Berlin post-office. 

" Mr. Brown broke up a field of forty acres, which had been in grass 
eighteen years, and planted it in corn. The corn might have been put 
in hills a little thicker than usual, and the after culture was tolerably 
thorough. Some three or four weeks ago, nine acres of the land was 
measured oft', being the poorest part of the field, and the corn gathered 
and husked, when it was found that the nine acres averaged ninety-five 
bushels an acre, which Avas satisfactory evidence (the poorest part of the 
field having been measured) that the whole forty acres would average 
full one hundred bushels to the acre. 

" This incident is mentioned as an evidence that the soil of Central 
Illinois does not deteriorate. Mr. Brown is of opinion, that by a proper 
rotation of crops, our soil will improve, and be made to produce richer 
yields than it does even now. * * * * 

" In a conversation we had with Mr. Brown, he assured us that the 
land had never been manured, and that if it had received as much 
attention as is usual in the older States, the crop would have been much 
larger." 



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